Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Bible Journaling: Words & Fonts

Have you ever looked at Bible journaling on Pinterest and noticed how amazing other people's handwriting can be? People often don't realize that many of those fancy-looking words are actually FONTS. Or maybe you knew this, but you have no idea how they get those fonts.
Or where.
Or how to put them on your computer, let alone USE them in your Bible.

It can all be so confusing! So today, I'm writing about fonts... the different kinds, how to find, install and use them in your Bible journaling.

Types of Fonts

In college I took a class where our teacher taught us about fonts. There were all kinds like serif, sans serif, Egyptian, script. None of this is important for you, except to know that mixing fonts can have a very nice effect.

For instance:

In the above photo, I actually didn't use fonts except for the words "holy spirit". And you're going to hate me for this, but I don't know what that font is. I just happened to see it in someone else's photo and totally stole it to use in my own Bible. But I want to point out that my handwriting is a mix of blocky, straight-edged letters (except for "of them" which is cursive). But the contrast of the blocky, straight letters with the curvy "holy spirit" makes the words really stand out.

It's something to keep in mind. When you're writing out a verse, try using blocky letters for the regular text and curvy or exciting letters for the bigger, more important words.

Finding Fonts

The next time you're on Pinterest, search for Bible journaling fonts. You'll get lots of ideas like this one from CdotLove Design:

Downloading and Installing Fonts

A word of caution. Any file you download to your computer can potentially cause harm. It's something you'll have to use your judgement for, or get a tech-savvy friend to help you with. I leave all the techy stuff up to my hubby. However, some font websites are well-known and generally considered "safe" such as:

dafont.com
fontspace.com

I've used fontfreak.com for years and haven't experienced any troubles. But again, do your research.

To download you go to the font website and either search for the font you want or follow a link provided. In this case we'll use a link from the example above and try to install "Sweet Pea" because I think it's adorable. And I wants it (best Gollum voice). *Note this font is for personal use only. I'm using it here just as an illustration for how to download a font.

First, download the font by clicking the DOWNLOAD button on the right.

Next, choose to SAVE AND OPEN the file.

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Now that you have the font, here is how to install it on your computer. If you have a Mac or a different version of Windows, you will have to look up this step for yourself. This is how I installed it on my own version of Windows:

Step 1: Go to "My Computer"
Step 2: Open Local Disk (C:)
Step 3: Open the Windows Folder
Step 4: Right click on the Fonts folder. Drag it to your desktop and "create shortcut." Now you won't have to search for your fonts folder again, you can access it through the new shortcut.
Step 5: Open the fonts folder. Drag and drop the font file (in this case, it is called Sweet Pea_2.ttf) to the desktop FIRST. Then drag and drop it into the fonts folder. It should say "installing font."

Now you should be able to use your new font! Open Microsoft Word (or similar program) and find your font. You can type up words or Bible verses, print them out and either glue or trace them into your journaling Bible!